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Novelist David Nicholls on Kate Bush’s ‘Cloudbusting’

How a song became a teenager’s private anthem

Nov. 18, 2014 10:40 a.m. ET

Novelist David Nicholls, 47, is author of four books, including “One Day” and “Us.” He spoke to Marc Myers.

I was a bookish, slightly pretentious 13-year-old in 1980. The pop scene in London then was filled with cultural cliques, and you had to be a mod or a New Romantic or a heavy-metal fan to fit in. I wasn’t any of those. I liked British singer Kate Bush.